Prime Minister Carney has taken office amid one of the most precarious political and economic moments in our modern history. He has named a cabinet and while the names on many doors have changed, the challenges before our country—like a stagnating economy, affordability, and ongoing threats from the U.S.—demand an urgent, strategic response.
Across the West, and especially in Alberta, I hear both optimism and reservation. Optimism that we have a federal government that has said it will focus on the economy and trade, and that they are in favour of sensible actions like building major projects and knocking down interprovincial trade barriers.
But many business leaders I speak with are still reserving full judgement to see what this government does, and particularly what it does early on. The policy direction for much of the last decade was discriminatory against natural resources, and the economic results were horrendous. Trust and confidence will have to be earned. The truth is this: from the perspective of Alberta, the government—and this new cabinet—has mere weeks to demonstrate that it is prepared to govern differently.
The urgency stems from deeper fractures in our national fabric, namely, a decade of economic atrophy and now uncertainty and strain in our trade relationship with the U.S. Growth has stagnated. Affordability has deteriorated. Our formerly world-leading immigration system is now misaligned with both labour market demands and newcomer success. And a generation of Canadians, particularly youth and young adults, increasingly believe they will be worse off than their parents.
Nowhere is this disillusionment more acutely felt than in Alberta. This province has long been a net contributor to the federation, not just fiscally, but in innovation, energy, and ambition. We’ve powered the national economy and paid more than our share into the national treasury. Yet, too often, our industries face federal policies that feel less like oversight and more like obstruction, sometimes even antagonism.
What Albertans are really asking for is a new national economic strategy that recognizes and enables regional strengths rather than suppressing them. A strategy that does not ask provinces to be identical but instead recognizes they each have unique assets, geographies, and capabilities. For those who are concerned about national unity, I offer this suggestion: the antidote to separatist sentiment is good public policy.
Good public policy is also essential if Canada is to become the best-performing economy in the G7—a laudable ambition we share with the prime minister. On that, I recently wrote Prime Minister Carney a letter and suggested three early and urgent recommendations:
1. It’s time to build
Canada must rediscover the ambition to build, baby, build. That begins by fast-tracking projects of national significance, many of which face a slow and uncertain approval path. We need a clear declaration that infrastructure and resource projects, from energy and critical minerals to agriculture and forestry, are vital to our national interest, and to establish a trade infrastructure task force to identify and expedite key trade corridors and egress. This can all be done immediately and doesn’t cost a thing.
Priorities that will take a bit longer but should begin right away are to reform the Impact Assessment Act to ensure it is constitutional, efficient, and predictable, and then also create a national loan guarantee program to de-risk major infrastructure and resource development.
2. It’s time to invest in ourselves
Canada’s long-term competitiveness depends on talent. But today, we underinvest in skills development and have inexcusably jeopardized the national pro-immigration consensus by abandoning what worked so well. As a result, we lack both the domestic workforce capacity and the systems to effectively integrate new Canadians into areas of economic need.
Fixing this starts by treating skilled trades with the focus they deserve, and increasing funding for pre-apprenticeship and trades training, especially through Labour Market Development Agreements and Apprenticeship Incentive Grants.
On immigration, the most impactful first action is reforming the points system (Comprehensive Ranking System or CRS for the sticklers) so it actually gives points for the right things. Right now, we aren’t even using the single biggest factor that predicts immigrant success—current income—or the second biggest—field of study—in selection. We need to prioritize candidates with in-demand skills, particularly in trades, health care, and technology.
And we need to seize the moment to finally end the “doctor driving an Uber” problem by launching a federal-provincial task force to expedite foreign credential recognition and harmonize professional standards across provinces.
3. It’s time to compete and win
We are famously modest, and it’s time we do away with a bit of that and talk immodestly about competing—actually competing—and winning, particularly in terms of attracting people, capital, and innovation.
That begins with a major pragmatic rethink of environmental policy. We need pragmatic, outcome-oriented policies that reduce emissions while enabling growth, investment, and innovation. Instead, today’s reality is a patchwork of unworkable directives—oil and gas emissions caps and greenwashing provisions being prime examples—that fall short of achieving genuine results. These policies act as a drag on investment, suppress creative solutions, and are counterproductive to both the economy and the environment.
Next, tax reform is seriously overdue. The current code is a productivity sinkhole and an investment repellent. A comprehensive federal tax review should aim to reward work, investment, savings, and innovation.
Third, we must finally treat internal trade as seriously as external trade. The federal government should match the ambition being shown in Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, and P.E.I., by setting a deadline—say next year’s Canada Day—for full free labour mobility and goods trade across all provinces and territories.
None of these ideas are radical. They are practical, achievable, and supported by evidence.
A continuation of the past approach will only deepen disillusionment and entrench regional divisions. But a clear, nation-building strategy, centred on regional assets and strengths, focused on building, enhancing our workforce, and restoring competitiveness, could reset the trajectory.
The moment is now. The opportunity is narrow. Let us not squander it.
